Newtown shooting prompts armored whiteboard idea (video)

A teacher, demonstrating a concept in geometry, draws a figure on a portable whiteboard. Suddenly, gunshots are heard in the hallway.

Slipping her arms through the straps on the back of the 18-by-20-inch whiteboard, which doubles as an armored shield, the teacher tells her students to go into emergency mode, which they've practiced several times in drills.

Facing the door, holding up the whiteboard, the teacher is ready to hold off the gun-wielding intruder, at least long enough to give police time to arrive.

That's the vision of George C. Tunis III, chairman of Hardwire LLC, which makes armor for military vehicles, including protecting Humvees from roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Hearing the news about the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Tunis thought about how his company could help improve school safety.

"What would solve the problem quickly in a way that was unobtrusive for the teachers; in fact, it's helpful to the teachers?" he asked.

The whiteboards don't look scary to students and can hang on the wall and be used in class. But Tunis said they're strong enough to stop a bullet from any handgun and even a high-powered rifle, according to National Institute of Justice ratings.

Tunis did not claim the shield would stop the rounds from the AR-15 Bushmaster semi-automatic weapon used by Adam Lanza in Newtown, but said most intruders use far less powerful weapons.

"A bad guy like that wants to carry as many weapons as he can ... in case something jams up," Tunis said.

The whiteboards, which cost $299 each, weigh less than 4 pounds and are coated with Dyneema, the only fiber stronger than spider webs and 2.5 times stronger than Kevlar.

There are 100 layers of the fiber, which essentially snares the bullet and stops it, so there's no shrapnel. And the fiber absorbs force well.

"It's startling that a 9 mm handgun (bullet) feels no worse than a 40 mph Little League pitch," Tunis said.

He said the whiteboards are only one part of a security plan that includes rearranging the classroom to lessen lines of sight, and other measures such as secure doors. (Hardwire also makes peel-and-stick armor for doors.)

And he doesn't claim the whiteboards will totally stop an intruder, but they'll buy time.

Rather than one guard who can't be everywhere, "You're looking at $15,000 to $20,000 to put armor in the hands of every single adult," he said.

Several schools have the whiteboards, including Hardwire's home state of Maryland, Minnesota, North Dakota and California. Some of the purchases were financed with private donations.

Hardwire provides training for the school staff, with two former Secret Service agents. That is critical, Tunis said.

Barry Tull, headmaster of Worcester Preparatory School in Berlin, Md., said training made all the difference. Tunis donated whiteboards and armored clipboards to the school, which his children attend.

"It took all of the pressure off the teachers," Tull said. At first they were worried they'd be expected to act like first responders.

"What they discovered is, if somebody shows up at your door with a weapon, you are a first responder."

He said the staff was unanimously positive about the whiteboards.

"It gives them something, rather than cowering behind a filing cabinet," he said. "I think the teachers had a very enthusiastic reception to these once they had the training."

Tull said he would be willing to pay the $15,000 it would have cost, now that he's seen them and heard his teachers' reactions.

There are naysayers, however. Ken Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services of Cleveland, said he gets pitches for many such products.

"Every time there's a high-profile school shooting, the vendors come out of the woodwork," he said.

But "there's often a disconnect" between the "practical application in a school and what educators would be receptive to purchasing."

Trump said that in an emergency, "Teachers are going to be grabbing their kids, not their (armored) whiteboards. The first and best line of defense is always an alert and well-trained staff and student body."

Trump consults with school systems, which "by and large ... need to do a better job" in creating safety measures. It would be better to "dedicate the time in planning, training, working with first responders than buying a ton of equipment that's not going to be very effective if the people behind are not well-trained in school safety."

Also, few school systems can afford to buy the equipment, said Trump, who is scheduled to testify before Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's task force on the Newtown shootings.

Scott Schoonmaker, North Branford's superintendent of schools, said, "I would be more interested in hearing about something that would fortify a door, rather than having an individual in a crisis situation doing something that Batman and Robin do."

North Branford's Board of Education hired six armed security guards, most of them retired police officers, to guard its schools.

Concerning the whiteboards, Schoonmaker said, "I guess I have a hard time asking my teachers to be a shield."

He, as well as Superintendent Sal Menzo of Wallingford, mentioned the need for state financial assistance.

Hamlet Hernandez, superintendent of Branford schools, was more emphatic.

"This is not something that I would look into -- given both my background as a career educator and as a former infantry officer, it's not something I would endorse for our schools."

Hernandez said school security needs to be a combination of collaborative efforts -- there isn't one easy tool to stop harm.

"I don't think anything will ever stop something catastrophic like (Newtown). We may be able to mitigate, we may be able to in some instances intervene before it happens, but some of the measures that we really need to look at as a state are a combination of passive and active security measures," he said.

"I think there are combinations to help us create safer environments, but they're not environments that can withstand any sort of catastrophic event unless we're willing to literally create fortresses, and I'm not a supporter of that."